I had the opportunity to spend time with Ward and Eloise, a couple that have been married for 68 years and both suffer from Alzheimer's disease, along with others living in a memory care facility in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Willfully admitted, I started this project out of fear. When my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease two years ago, I did not know what to think. Just weeks after the death of my grandfather a little less than a year and a half ago, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Originally diagnosed with 60% memory loss, the state of her cognitive abilities have quickly declined in this period of time. Like many, I knew nothing about a disease that had transformed a woman that I grew up idolizing into a one that barely recognized me.
Being the youngest in my family, I have seen the effect that this disease has had on myself, my grandmother and family, and even her caretakers.
With that being said, I was looking to chronicle the life of others living with Alzheimer's. My story, "A Light in the Dark," focuses on the memory-care facility and the residents' moments of clarity, dependence and connection that emerge after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, in an attempt to help raise awareness for this painful disease.
